Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Five: Petty Officer G. T. Bridges, Royal Navy, who was lost when H.M.S. Russell was mined off Malta on 27 April 1916

Africa General Service 1902-56, 1 clasp, Somaliland 1908-10 (213288 A.B., H.M.S. Hyacinth); Naval General Service 1915-62, 1 clasp, Persian Gulf 1909-1914 (213288 Lg. Sean., H.M.S. Hyacinth); 1914-15 Star (213288 P.O., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (213288 P.O., R.N.), with related Memorial Plaque (Grayston Thurston Bridges), generally extremely fine (6) £400-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to Great War Casualties formed by Tim Parsons.

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Grayston Thurston Bridges was born at Sudbury, Suffolk in March 1885 and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in January 1901. Advanced to Able Seaman in October 1904, he served aboard H.M.S. Hyacinth between October 1908 and June 1911, and participated in the ‘Somaliland 1908-10’ and ‘Persian Gulf 1909-14’ operations

The outbreak of hostilities found him serving as a Petty Officer in the cruiser Blonde, and, following a period ashore at Pembroke between February and September 1915, he joined the battleship Russell:

‘The battleship Russell, Captain W. Bowden-Smith, R.N., was one of the first victims of the German minelaying submarines, one of which, the U-73, had voyaged from Kiel to Malta under Kapitain Siess. On the night of 25 April 1916, the U-73 laid 36 mines at about 50 metres apart in front of the harbour at Malta, before proceeding to Cattaro. The following morning Russell, with Rear-Admiral S. R. Freemantle on board, struck one of these mines and sank with a loss of 124 officers and men. Admiral Freemantle, Captain Bowden-Smith and about 625 officers and men were saved’ (A Dictionary of Disasters at Sea refers).

Bridges is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Sold with an original wartime photographic postcard of the recipent and his messmates, H.M.S. Blonde (‘ ... I suppose you can pick me out of the motley throng?’); and an Xmas Greetings card sent by him to his parents in 1912, with an inserted photograph of H.M.S. Diamond.